Books

Cover design Cristina Neagu

  Cover design Tom Costello

Cover design Cristina Neagu

Twelfth International Congress of

Neo-Latin Studies, Bonn

XXIX Congresso Internazionale di Studi Umanistici, Sassoferrato

2-5 iuglio 2008

'The ‘Lesser’ Dürer? Text and Imagein Early-Modern Broadsheets' in The Perils of Print Culture: Book, Print and Publishing History in Theory and Practice, edited by Eve Patten and Jason McElligott (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), ISBN 9781137415318.

This collection of essays illustrates various pressures and concerns - both practical and theoretical - related to research in the fast-developing terrain of print culture studies. I wrote Chapter 12: The ‘Lesser’ Dürer? Text and Image in Early-Modern Broadsheets When compared to his achievements in the visual arts, Albrecht Dürer's literary output may seem unimportant. However, not only did he cultivate various literary genres with enthusiastic confidence, he also consciously integrated the fluidity of written expression within the space of his pictorial and graphic works. In fact, the interplay between image and written language is one of the main features of Dürer's style. My intention was to explore this comparatively little studied, but essential aspect of Albrecht Dürer's work: his interest in language as an essential part of the image. The main focus of this essay is a small and not very glamorous series of broadsheets. Like any ephemeral printing (then as well as now) one tended to read and dispose of the material, sometimes for no other reason than the awkwardness of storage (books have always had a better fate than loose leafs). Given their generally unexciting nature on the one hand, and their scarcity on the other, broadsheets are not among critics’ favourites, but their value in illuminating the complex interpretative issues surrounding archiving and the visual to print relation is evident.
 

Other Worlds and Imaginary Beings: From Medieval Illumination to 19th-Century Drawings, edited by Cristina Neagu (Oxford, Christ Church, 2014) ISBN 9781872333618.

Monograph accompanying the exhibition at Christ Church Library (27 January-25 April 2014).Contains essays on 'Lewis Carroll, Medieval monsters and Lord Mark Kerr' by Hector McDonnell and 'Fabulous Beings in Manuscripts and Early Printed Books' by Cristina Neagu. Among the exhibits on display were manuscripts, early printed books and sketches by Lewis Carroll and Dean Liddell, as well as a drawing by John Tenniel and some engravings. A selection of drawings by Vice-Admiral Lord Mark Kerr (1778-1840) was also be on display on loan from the private collection of Hector McDonnell. Lord Mark’s drawings of bizarre, otherworldly creatures are of considerable significance, and are part of the foundations from which modern cartoon characters derive. They have been very largely ignored up to now, even though there are sets in various important public collections, including the British Library and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
 

‘The Power of the Book and the Kingdom of Hungary during the Fifteenth Century’, in Humanism in Fifteenth-Century Europe, edited by David Rundle, Medium Aevum Monographs 30 (Oxford, 2012) ISBN 9780907570233.

This volume brings together a series of scholars to provide a stimulating overview of Italian Renaissance humanism across Europe in the fifteenth century. The ten chapters cover Italy (Stephen Milner), Greeks and Renaissance Humanism (John Monfasani), the German-speaking lands (John L. Flood), Poland (Jacqueline Glomski), Hungary (Cristina Neagu), Castile (Jeremy Lawrance), France (Craig Taylor), Scotland (Thomas Rutledge), England (Daniel Wakelin) and close with a thematic discussion of the 'Structures of Contacts' (David Rundle; this chapter is available for download). In addition, there is a Biographical Appendix of the quattrocento Italian humanists discussed in the volume (by Oren Margolis and David Rundle). For further details, see http://mediumaevum.modhist.ox.ac.uk/monographs_30.shtml

Servant of the Renaissance: The Poetry and Prose of Nicolaus Olahus (Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt/M., New York, Wien: Peter Lang, 2003) ISBN 3906769690.
 

This book is the first full-length study of the poetry and prose of Nicolaus Olahus (1493-1568), a central figure of Northern humanism. He was also a much-admired diplomat and man of the church at the courts of Queen Mary of Hungary and King Ferdinand. Although Olahus’s life and work are relatively well documented, a significant part of his writings – including his poetry – has not been subject to any previous critical study. The texts Olahus composed suggest a special approach to language. He wrote as a rhetorician, not just in the sense that he composed in an elegant style, but also to persuade, delight, move and impel to action. This volume discusses a Transylvanian author whose biography, beliefs and work reveal important links with Erasmus and the humanism associated with the Collegium Trilingue in Louvain. It offers new insights into how Renaissance values were assimilated in Central Europe and combines an examination of the main features characterizing Olahus’s literary style with the presentation of an annotated text of his poetry. As a result, Olahus re-emerges as a major humanist and Counter-Reformation writer, alongside his better-known predecessor Janus Pannonius, and his renowned protégé Joannes Sambucus.

Sample Reviews
Piotr Urbanski, 'Cristina Neagu, Servant of the Renaissance : The Poetry and Prose of Nicolaus Olahus', book review in Renaissance Quarterly (LVIII, 3:2005), 970-972.

Robert Lazu, 'Nicolaus Olahus la Oxford' [Nicolaus Olahus at Oxford], Adevărul literar şi artistic (Bucureşti: 31 May: 2005), 14.

Forthcoming publications

Editorial work

Tom Costello, Coloured Poems on Plain Paper (Oxford: Salegate Press, 2012) ISBN 9781872333571.

The author's interests always lay in the realms of film, drama and poetry. He established several film societies, poetry and jazz concerts and poetry workshops.He is currently engaged in the development of experimental photography (an attempt to do with a film camera what painters do with brushes). He has to date mounted twelve one-man exhibitions of his art work and founded the company PhotoPoetry.
For details, see TomCostelloCollection.com

Also published

'The Hungaria-Athila : Nicolaus Olahus’s formula of the orbis loca and orbis gesta’, in 

Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Bonnensis: Proceedings of the Twelfth International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies, Bonn, 3-9 August 2003, general editor Rhoda Schnur (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2006), 619-629. ISBN 0866983600 / 9780866983600.

The “Processus sub Forma Missae” and Nicolaus Olahus’ in Studi Umanistici Piceni XXIX/2009, edited by Ferruccio Bertini, Stefano Trojani (Sassoferrato: Istituto Internazionale di Studi Piceni, 2009), 387-395.

ISSN 1126-4764.